Give me the challenge, the wild sea, or the great climb,
From up here with rock, wind and snow I live,
Insignificant from so very high the world below,
Its politics dimmed, it wars unseen, only the eagles live.
Below where a tiny shrew finds a hole and vanishes
I cannot see that shrew, but the earth can feel her.
Here I feel the earth and see it moving,
The splitting rock, the silence, the painted sky.
I climb because the world shrinks, its form melts,
I climb because it is what I do, I know what I do.
I climb because the stars are brighter, larger,
I climb because up here I am close to myself to god.
Spellbound by beauty, by fear, by hope, by adventure,
Maybe the spell will break, the cord of life snapped,
Maybe the dream will become reality,
That I gave myself and the world answered
On the death of my friend ‘Robbie’ Denis Robinson. 7th August 2016 on the Matterhorn with his friend Peter Rumble.
Caroline aldock©2016